White Rose
A Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town one-shot.
Based on the 'Cliff Faints' event
For Riley, who hates the Mayor of Mineral Town as much as I do
I don't own Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town or its characters. They belong to Natsume. Drat!
Sorry if I mess any of the details up.
Winter 3 Year One
Yeana woke up as the first crack of dawn hit her window panes. She rubbed her sleepy eyes, not quite ready yet to leave her nice warm bed and head out into the cold. Her dog barking was the thing that finally got her out of bed.
After feeding her dog, Yeana began to get her own breakfast. As she sat down to eat her oatmeal while it was still warm, she peered out the window and saw the snow, gently falling down. She smiled slightly remembering; it had been snowing too when she had decided to buy this farm in hopes that she would be able to escape the dreariness of city life only to find that the farm was run down and dilapidated. But Yeana had quit her old job and gave up the keys to her apartment, so there was nowhere else to go. Besides, Yeana was a stubborn little thing and once she had the idea in her head that she could re-store the farm to it's former glory…Well, nothing could set her from her path. Looking back, she had made the right choice. The citizens of Mineral Town were friendly and more then willing to help her out; the farm was doing well, she had three chickens, a horse, and a dog; and…she had fallen in love.
Yeana didn't know what had attracted her to Cliff. Perhaps it was that they both were new to the town or possibly it was his quietness. Maybe she viewed him as some for of lost little puppy that needed love. Whatever the reason, Yeana liked Cliff. She had first met him at Carter's urging. Carter had seen that Cliff seemed sad and lonely, so he asked Yeana to try and become friends with him. They talked for a bit there in the church and although Yeana led the conversation, Cliff said that he enjoyed talking to her and wanted to see her again. So she did.
Whenever Yeana visited the sprites, she also made sure to stop by the church As time went by Yeana became closer to Cliff and even at times gave Cliff small little gifts. When Duke and Mana needed help picking grapes, Yeana signed Cliff up to help along with her. That turned into a part time job for Cliff, which gave him the money he needed. Not to say that Yeana didn't like the other villagers. No, she enjoyed hanging out with Popuri, read books with Mary, helped Doctor out by giving him grasses, played with May and Stu, and of course talked with Carter. But there was just something different about her friendship with Cliff from her friendships with the others.
Yeana picked up her basket and decided to go off and visit her sprite friends. The snow fell down gently on Yeana's shoulders as she walked over to the Rose Plaza. There she saw a distrsing site.
There was Cliff walking along muttering things that she couldn't hear. He seemed unhappy though. Then he looked up before crashing down on the ground, a faded picture next to him. Yeana picked it up and looked at it. There was a happy smiling little Cliff. Next to him was a frail looking woman. Holding that woman's hand was a girl who appeared to be just a bit younger then Cliff, she was probably his sister. Yeana carefully put it in her rucksack before turning back to Cliff.
"Cliff?" she asked worried.
"Snow…" he whispered softly and then nothing else left his mouth.
Yeana tried to drag Cliff to Doctor's office but even carrying chickens around didn't give her enough arm strength to move Cliff very far. Yeana looked around but no one was in site for it was snowing very hard. It was then that Yeans knew where someone would always be, thru rain, snow, sleet or rain…The inn.
She took off her coat and put it on Cliff to try and keep him warm. Then, Yeana ran over there as fast as she could. She flung open the door. Even though she was out of breath and cold, she uttered the words, "Cliff….Rose…Plaza….Fainted…Help…."
Ann nodded. "Carter, you help Yeana. My dad and I will get Cliff." Then she and Doug walked out to the plaza.
Carter let Yeana catch her breath before they walked over to the hospital. Doctor was already looking Cliff over; he was lying in one of their beds. "Will he be alright?" Yeana asked Doctor in a worried tone.
Doctor nodded, "He'll be alright. He just fainted from fatigue. He must have been working harder then usual at the winery yesterday."
"That's good," Yeana said with a sigh of relief.
Doctor nodded, "You all may go now."
Everyone nodded and walked off except for Yeana.
"You may go now," Doctor repeated.
But Yeana shook her head in defiance, "I'm staying right here until Cliff is better. I have to give him something."
Doctor sighed when he realized that Yeana wasn't going to budge, "Alright, but stay out of the way okay?"
"Yes sir," Yeana said with a grin. She pulled up a chair and sat down next to Cliff's bed. He looked so happy when he slept. It was as if all of his unknown problems had drifted away. As the hours drifted away, Yeana didn't move from her post. She only fell asleep late at night when she couldn't push away sleep any longer.
In the morning, Cliff woke up surprised for two reasons. One, he was in the hospital; two, Yeana was asleep in a chair next to him.
Doctor noticed that Cliff was awake and walked over to him, "Feeling better?"
Cliff nodded in reply, "What's up with Yeana though?"
Doctor sighed, "She wouldn't leave you alone. She found you in the plaza and brought you here. She wouldn't go even to tend to her farm." He paused for a bit as if thinking about something, "She seems to care for you very much."
Cliff stared at Yeana and reached out to touch her hand. The slightest touch woke the female farmer up. "Huh? What?" she asked before she saw that Cliff was up. She gave him a huge smile before reaching into her rucksack and pulling out the photo, "You dropped this."
Cliff took it from her and looked at it. "The people in the photo are my mother, sister and I. We lived in the city. My mother was very frail and ill and our father had left us so it was hard to get by….Except for this one girl…I can't quite remember her name. In fact I think that she never told us her name, but she grew these flowers in the windowsill of her apartment and she would give us some so we could maybe sell them. I couldn't stand letting her help us and not do anything for her so I often helped out when I could. She live with her grand-mother and had the most beautiful flowers that grew there but my favorite was the white roses. A few years later, I decided to leave and explore the world. My mother seemed to be better so I thought that everything would be okay…It wasn't. When I returned, I discovered that in my absence my mother's sickness had gotten much worse and it had killed her. My sister had moved to a place unknown. And the flower girl….She had also left. I was devastated. I felt as if I had killed my mother. So I ran away again. I moved here and I met Carter…And you…."
He paused for a bit and smiled slightly, "You remind me of the flower girl."
Yeana thought back to her own childhood. She had lived in a apartment with her grandmother. She remembered how her grand-mother said that she had a green thumb for the flowers that she had planted grew so well. She remembered the cute boy who came to help… She looked into Cliff's eyes and said with a sweet smile on her face, "Cliff…I think I am the flower girl." He smiled back at her and leaned in for a kiss.
Thanks for reading this. I hope that you enjoyed this Harvest Moon one-shot. If you like it I might write more later. All you have to do is ask. Also I'm sorry if the ending seems a little odd...I don't know how to make it better. If you have any constructive crticism, please give it. If you are only going to tell me how much this story suxs then find a better place to rant because I don't have the time to hear things like that